The cult comedy that makes you wonder if life is like 'The Truman Show'

When it premiered almost stealthily on Prime Video three years ago, The Jury became the comedy of the moment. With a mockumentary format, it showed the interaction between the various members of a jury. The linchpin that made it a phenomenon was the blend of reality and fiction: the protagonist, Ronald Gladden, was a real person who believed he was actually part of a jury. The truth was that it was all fake and that his fellow jurors were actors, a premise reminiscent of the film The Truman Show. After that experience, the same team has put together a second installment with a completely different setting. The Jury: Corporate Retreat arrives this Friday on Prime Video with three episodes. The next two will premiere on March 27th and the last two on April 3rd.

The innocent victim of this new installment is Anthony Normand, a temp worker who joins the spicy sauce company Rockin' Grandma's. The company, obviously, is fictional, as are all its employees, but Anthony doesn't know that. Just after signing up for the company, a corporate retreat is organized for all company members to get to know each other better and bond. Furthermore, a "real" documentary about the experience will be filmed during this outing. Obviously, all the activities and reactions of the employees have been designed to generate astonishment in Anthony, who believes that everything that happens is real. Among other things, in the middle of the corporate retreat, the CEO of the company announces his retirement and that his son, apparently inept and immature, will be his successor. All this if the company doesn't end up being sold to another company that appears by surprise during the team building activity.

In its first season, The Jury seduced critics. The mockumentary format brought it closer to comedies like The Office – in fact, the creators, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, were part of the writing team for the popular comedy – but the blend of reality and fiction creates surprise in the viewer. The first installment was nominated for best comedy at both the Golden Globes and the Emmys. James Marsden, the most well-known actor among those who appeared in the series, who played a parody of himself, also received a nomination.

One of the biggest challenges of the second season was to find a protagonist who had the same degree of innocence and good nature that Ronald Gladden demonstrated in the first installment. The production team posted an ad to find new employees for a family company for which a documentary would be made over two weeks. They received more than 10,000 applications. From all of them, they chose Anthony Norman, a 26-year-old guy from Nashville who they knew had never seen The Jury and therefore had no knowledge of what they were preparing. "Finding the person [the protagonist] is the most important part, because they are the heart of the show. That's why we call them 'the hero.' There's a lot of skill involved, but in the end, there's also an element of luck. Because you can never fully know the other person," producer Nicholas Hatton explains to " USA Today".

With the first installment, the main character made viewers regain confidence in people because they saw that when faced with imposed situations, it is possible (and human) to respond with empathy, good humor, and responsibility. Its ability to provoke extreme laughter, but also to generate uncomfortable embarrassment, led ARA to name The Jury as the second best series of 2023.